Q&A: General Astronomy and Space Science

Q:
I read in Time Magazine that an asteroid was found recently (I believe it was named AN10) and that it would come within 20,000 miles of Earth in the year 2022. Do you have any information on this asteroid?

A:
No known asteroid actually fits the bill--20,000 miles in 2022--but two asteroids, 1997 XF11 in 2028 and 1999 AN10 in 2027, had for some months the possibility of coming to a distance of 20,000 miles during the 2020s. As we obtained more information, however, the actual miss distances for these objects in those years were refined to 600,000 and 240,000 miles, respectively.